Education: DACA Benefits for Students

In 2012, the Obama administration passed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals DACA Act, which allows illegal immigrants to work legally for a period of time. The passing of this act has also affected education; since DACA, colleges have been more lenient in allowing financial aid to be given to undocumented students. Undocumented students and students who are citizens are being treated with increasing equality. Now states like New York, New Jersey, Texas, and California allow undocumented students who live in their state to pay public college tuition as legal residents of the state. New York University recently started a program to give financial aid to undocumented students from New York tuition grants in the same manner awarded to documented students. However, the struggle for undocumented students to get into college and afford college is still not easy.